AeA Study Reveals Where the Tech Jobs Are

The New York metro area, Washington, D.C., and Silicon Valley led the pack among U.S. cities with high-tech jobs, but the U.S. is still not adequately preparing itself to compete in the global marketplace, according to a Tuesday report from AeA.

The New York metro area, Washington, D.C., and Silicon Valley led the pack among U.S. cities with high-tech jobs, but the U.S. is still not adequately preparing itself to compete in the global marketplace, according to a Tuesday report from the American Electronics Association.

AeA's Cybercities 2008 report was compiled from information gathered by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics in 2006, the most recent year for which the data was available.

But although the San Jose metro area has earned the nickname "Silicon Valley," it was the New York area that offered the most positions in the high-tech field with 316,500 jobs. Washington, D.C. came in at number two with 295,800 jobs, followed by San Jose/Silicon Valley, Boston, and Dallas-Fort Worth.

New York also dominated the tech services sectors, with the highest number of telecom, Internet services, R&D, testing labs, and computer training services employees. San Jose and Silicon Valley led in manufacturing, while Washington, DC offered a large concentration of computer systems design and engineering services, AeA said.

Silicon Valley also led with the highest concentration of tech workers, with 286 techies per 1,000 private sector employees. That was followed by Boulder, Huntsville, Durham, and Washington, D.C.

Despite gains in the tech sector, the AeA expressed concern that the U.S. might want to re-evaluate its attitude toward global competitors if it wants to remain among the top tech countries.

"AeA is concerned that future job growth will be jeopardized unless the United States prepares itself for a vastly more competitive global marketplace," Christopher Hansen, the president and chief executive of AeA, said in a statement.

Hansen warned that the issues faced by the United States are not a local problem. "They are caused by the negligence of our national political leaders to fund legislation that invests in math and science scholarships and scientific research," he said. "They refuse to take a simple measure that would cost the taxpayer nothing and would allow the best and brightest from around the world to work in the United States instead of competing with us from abroad."

Lawmakers "simply do not understand that the world has become a dramatically more competitive place and we have to adapt or we'll be left behind," Hansen said.

At the local level, however, city leaders must ensure quality K-12 education, particularly in math and science, according to AeA.

A reliable broadband network is also critical, the study concluded. Reliable Internet access is "as critical to economic development today as the electrical grid was a hundred years ago."

This is the first cyber-cities report from AeA since 2000. "With the industry experiencing three consecutive years of job growth, we decided it was time again to drill down to see which cyber-cities are growing the fastest and across which sectors," Hansen said.

Chloe Albanesius has been with PCMag.com since April 2007, most recently as Executive Editor for News and Features. Prior to that, she worked for a year covering financial IT on Wall Street for Incisive Media. From 2002 to 2005, Chloe covered technology policy for The National Journal's Technology Daily in Washington, DC. She has held internships at NBC's Meet the Press, washingtonpost.com, the Tate Gallery press office in London, Roll Call, and Congressional Quarterly. She graduated with a bachelor's degree in journalism from American University...
More »